For producers motivated by their new status as self-employed, landowning, capitalist coffee growers, specialty coffee presents an opportunity to proactively change the way they participate in the international market. Now responsible for determining their own path, many producers have jumped at the chance to enhance the value of their product and participate in the new “fair trade” market. But recent trends in the international coffee price have led many producers to wonder why their efforts to produce a certified Fair Trade and organic product are not generating the price advantage they had anticipated. My study incorporates data collected in eighteen months of fieldwork, including more than 45 interviews with coffee producers and fair trade roasters, 90 surveys of coffee growers, and ongoing participant observation to understand how fair trade certification, as both a market system and development program, meets the expectations of the coffee growers. By comparing three coffee cooperatives that have engaged the Fair Trade system to disparate ends, the results of this investigation are three case studies that demonstrate how global processes of certification, commodity trade, market interaction, and development aid effect social and cultural change within communities. This study frames several lessons learned in terms of 1. socioeconomic impacts of fair trade, 2. characteristics associated with positive development encounters, and 3. potential for commodity producers to capture value further along their global value chain. Commodity chain comparisons indicate the Fair Trade certified cooperative receives the highest per-pound price, though these findings are complicated by costs associate with certification and producers’ perceptions of an “unjust” system. Fair trade-supported projects are demonstrated as more “successful” in the eyes of recipients, though their attention to detail can just as easily result in “failure”. Finally, survey results reveal just how limited is the market knowledge of producers in each cooperative, though fair trade does, in fact, provide a rare opportunity for producers to learn about consumer demand for coffee quality. Though bittersweet, the fair trade experiences described here present a learning opportunity for a wide range of audiences, from the certified to the certifiers to the concerned public and conscientious consumer.

Japan is one of the world’s major importers of wood products. Most of the wood entering the country is destined to Japan’s house building industry. However, Japan has been an indifferent market regarding demand of wood products certified for sustainable forest management. Current pressures that may indicate a shift in market conditions include: the recent economic recovery, increasing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and the new government’s public purchasing policies (PPP) titled Timber Procurement Policies. In order to assess the market prospect (in the next 5 years) for wood products certified as coming from sustainable and/or legal sources a study was completed focusing on Japanese home builders. Data was collected through a self administered mail survey of residential builders in Japan. Results show that there is a low level of understanding, as well as willingness to adopt, forest management certification among Japanese builders. Consequently, current market demand for certified products is low and builders expect little change in consumers’ demand for wood materials certified for sustainable management as well as those certified for legality in the next five years. Builders considered the most important potential drivers for increased demand for certified and/or legal wood products to be rigorously implemented public purchasing policies, followed by increasing final consumers’ demand and the growth in CSR. Builders also estimated that the positive impact of PPPs would be rather modest but widespread. Finally, builders indicated that PPPs would favour demand for certain product categories, such as: domestic wood, softwoods, wood from plantation and to a lesser degree wood from temperate forests. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

Parkour is a sport with a focus on overcoming obstacles. Parkour practitioners utilise specialised techniques relating to movements such as running, jumping, vaulting, climbing, swinging, rolling, and occasionally acrobatic manoeuvres in order to traverse a path through urban and rural environments. Parkour is a new sport, and as it continues to grow in popularity, there is an accompanying demand for parkour instructors. As a result, programmes to train parkour coaches have been created in various parts of the world. There has been minimal scholarly research conducted regarding parkour, and much of the current parkour research focuses either on parkour athletes, or the perceptions of parkour by non-parkour athletes. No research was discovered regarding parkour coaches. This exploratory study aimed to: (a) explore how parkour coaches learn to coach; and (b) explore the perceptions held by parkour coaches regarding parkour coach education programmes. In the first article, titled ‘How Parkour Coaches Learn to Coach: Coaches’ Sources of Learning in an Unregulated Sport’, participants’ responses related to the themes of: parkour coaching experience, previous leadership experience, experience as an athlete in parkour and other sports, other parkour coaches, non-parkour coaches, parkour coach education programmes, school, reflection, and the Internet. The second article, titled ‘What Does It Mean to be a Certified Parkour Coach? Parkour Coach Perceptions of Formal Coach Education Programmes’, shared participants’ perceptions of formal parkour coach education programmes, including: potential benefits and risks to participation in such programmes, modifications that could be made to the programmes, and parkour coach perceptions of coach education programmes for other sports.

Aim of the thesis is to define, characterize, structure and analyse incentives that lead firms to undergo and keep certification of the voluntary environmental standard ISO 14001. Following hypothesis was formulated in line with chosen aim: firms certify themselves with ISO 14001 mainly due to necessity of implementation of environmental elements to corporate governance in line with sustainable development. Outcome of the retrievel part of the thesis is to clearly define and well structure incentives that lead firms to certification. Subject matter experts from different certified companies assign to these incentives scales using staistical pairwise comparisons called Fuller's triangle. Based on the scales and order is confirmed or denied formulated hypothesis.

The thesis aims to evaluate the benefits of applying environmental certification in the tourism sector within the context of sustainable development. The first part contains the key definitions in the tourism, and its effects on society are characterized. The gradual evolution of man's relationship to the environment we get to the concept of sustainable development and sustainable tourism. The second chapter introduces the eco-certification, as a tool for sustainable tourism development, from concept definition through historical development, typology to the international context. The third chapter is devoted to eco-certification in the Czech Republic from the beginning to the current situation, creating a basis for analysis of the importance of eco-certification for companies in the Czech Republic in the final chapter. In the fourth chapter a final assessment of the importance of eco-certification in the field of tourism is carried out, based on the results of investigations made, with proposed measures and the prediction of future trends.

The main aim of this thesis is to examine the implementation of the project Czech Specials in practice and analyze offer of regional specialities in the Central Bohemian region through the comparison of the product of certified and non-certified restaurants. The theoretical part deals with the importance of restaurant services, gastronomy, gastronomic tourism, quality, and marketing. The content of the work is also characteristic of the region of Central Bohemia, the historical development of regional gastronomy and specifications of traditional regional specialities of the region. The fourth chapter introduces the project Czech Specials and represents the results of the carried out survey of certified restaurants. In the final chapter the author deals with the analysis of the offer of non-certified restaurants in Kutná Hora, and performs a comparison of their product with the product of certified restaurants. Finally, it presents the findings of an interview on the topic of regional gastronomy and project Czech Specials with the owner of the non-certified restaurant in Kutná Hora.

I examine the passage of alternative teacher certification policies in the states between 1975 and 2000 using event history analysis and supplementing the event history analysis with an ordinary least squares regression analysis of the strength of the alternative teacher certification policies. In order to test both teachers unions political strength external to state legislatures and teachers unions political strength internal to state legislatures, I use two variables to measure teachers union political strength. One variable measures the percentage of teachers in a state who work under union-negotiated contracts. The other variable measures the percentage of legislators in a state who list their non-legislative occupation as K-12 education. Control variables include teacher shortages, per pupil spending, legislative professionalism, divided government, democratic governor, percentage of minority students, change in percentage of minority students, an electoral threat index, and a time counter. Although the event history model results were inconclusive with respect to the teachers union political strength variables, the policy strength model results reveal that states with large percentages of teachers who work under union-negotiated contracts are more likely than other states to pass weak alternative teacher certification policies. This result supports the notion that teachers unions operate in the education policy-making arena.

In response to a growing teacher shortage, increasing numbers of secondary teachers are prepared through streamlined certification programs. For this reason, assessing candidates' content area knowledge gained from institutions of higher education across the United States is an important program admission factor as candidates must demonstrate content area knowledge by passing a Texas content area certification test (TExES). This study examines content knowledge for candidates enrolled in an online post­-baccalaureate program from September 1, 2002 through April 30, 2005. Academic transcript analysis and grades 8-­12 subject tests of the TExES were used as a proxy for subject matter knowledge for a sample of individuals seeking initial teacher certification in a post­-baccalaureate teacher certification at the University of North Texas. Descriptive data,linear regression, and logistic regression analyses were used to draw conclusions about the content area knowledge of the individuals in the sample. Scores on the TExES were used to determine the relationships between the content area knowledge of initial certification students and the number of content area courses completed, the grade point averages, and time elapsed between the completion of the last content area course and the student's initial attempt on the TExES. Results differed by the content area of the candidates. Analysis of variance results indicate significant differences between the five test groups with regard to number of courses taken F(4,139) = 9.334, p < .001 grade point average F(4,139) = 5.733, p < .001 and time between the last course taken F(4,139) = 6.135, p < .001. The three­-predictor model was statistically significant F(3,32) = 3.753, p = .02 for the History test group. The variable, upper-­level grade point average accounted for approximately 12% variance among scores within the History test group, and the variable months of time elapsed between last content area course work and the initial state content examination accounted for approximately 13% of variance among scores.

This study examined the signaling strength, or marketing power, of the most common qualifications of entry-level biomedical equipment technicians (BMETs) in Texas, based on stated hiring preferences of BMET managers, using order ranking of fictitious resumes. This study also sought to determine whether certification status, education background, military training background as a BMET, or type of employer [hospital or ISO] of the hiring manager had an effect on hiring preference for applicant qualifications of associate degree, military training as a BMET, or certified biomedical equipment technician (CBET) certification candidacy. Participants were asked to rank 16 fictitious resumes representing the most common qualifications of entry-level BMETs and to fill out a background questionnaire regarding their education, military, certification, and employer. The number of times each resume ranked in first place was tabulated and inter-rater reliability was calculated. Resumes with qualifications of associate degree versus military training as a BMET were compared at three levels of work experience. A chi-square test for independence was conducted for the comparisons to determine whether work experience influenced preference. Chi-square tests were also conducted for comparisons of associate degree with candidacy for CBET certification versus associate degree and military training with CBET candidacy versus military training. No statistically significant results were found for the chi-square tests, indicating that work experience did not significantly influence participant preferences for the compared qualifications. BMET hiring managers indicated a preference for combinations of qualifications rather than any single qualification. Correlations in hiring managers' educational background, certification status, military training as a BMET, type of employer, and preference for applicant qualifications were examined. Statistically significant correlations were found between participants' preference for associate degree or military training and level of education, military training background, and type of employer. Statistically significant correlations were also found between participants' preference of military training with CBET candidacy over military training alone and military training as a BMET background as well as certification background.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-01-26T18:09:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 brunafarhatdecastromatos.pdf: 2360200 bytes, checksum: c98fde26cbb31b9ee4adafddae7551af (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-01-27T11:07:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 brunafarhatdecastromatos.pdf: 2360200 bytes, checksum: c98fde26cbb31b9ee4adafddae7551af (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-27T11:07:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 brunafarhatdecastromatos.pdf: 2360200 bytes, checksum: c98fde26cbb31b9ee4adafddae7551af (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-09-25 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Inserido ao conceito de desenvolvimento sustentável, destaca-se a crescente preocupação em assegurar a qualidade de vida às gerações futuras, tema frequentemente abordado nos acordos e conferências internacionais. Dentro desse contexto, evidencia-se uma inquietação com as interferências oriundas do setor da indústria da construção civil devido ao elevado consumo de recursos naturais e energéticos, além da considerável influência nas questões econômicas, sociais, possibilitando, através de ambientes construídos, a geração de espaços de convivência do ser humano, como escolas, hospitais, casas e indústrias. Entretanto, há muitas questões a serem solucionadas, para as quais este trabalho se dirige. Afinal, até que ponto as construções realmente satisfazem aos indicadores de desenvolvimento sustentável? A fim de suprir essa lacuna, este trabalho busca baseado na análise dos indicadores de desenvolvimento sustentável apresentados pelo IBGE (2012), incluindo o item Instituições de Ensino Superior, identificar características, deficiências e atributos das cinco Macrorregiões do país. Paralelamente, efetua-se uma investigação acerca do emprego das ferramentas de certificação de edifícios mais utilizadas nacionalmente, suas metodologias de avaliação, critérios de pontuação e níveis de certificação. Por fim, analisam-se todas as hipóteses estudadas, permitindo concluir que, apesar de o Brasil estar na terceira posição mundial no que se refere à certificação de empreendimentos, essa prática é adotada predominantemente em empreendimentos comerciais, demonstrando que há um longo caminho a ser percorrido. / Inserted to the concept of sustainable development, there is a growing concern to ensure the quality of life for future generations, as a thematic always debated in international agreements and conferences. Within this context, highlights the increasing concern about the interference derived from the construction industry sector because of the high consumption of energy and natural resources, and considerable influence on economic and social issues, through the generation of spaces of coexistence, such as schools, hospitals, homes and industries. Therefore this paper aims to discuss these issues. After all, to what extent the building meet the indicators of sustainable development? In order to fill this gap, this study sought, based on analysis of indicators of sustainable development presented by IBGE (2012), including the Higher Education Institutions item, identify characteristics, attributes and deficiencies of the five Macroregions of the country. In parallel, we performed an investigation about the tools certification for buildings more used nationally, their methodologies for evaluation, scoring criteria and certification levels. Finally, we analyzed and discussed all issues studied; allowing concluding that, although Brazil is the third country with the largest number of certified buildings, there is still a long road to be traveled.